Berry Stains
by Gorsecloud
Summary: -One-shot- A short story in the Spanning Time universe. When Miranda decides she's sick of the scarves she and Chlora have been issued by the Guild, she decides to do something about it. But what's her plan and why does it involve berries?


**Chapter 7 of ST be coming soon, guys. Part of why I'm putting this one up here finally. There's a joke that nobody'll get otherwise.**

**Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2 (c) Nintendo & Chunsoft  
**

* * *

Berry Stains

"I hate these scarves..." Miranda grumbled, pulling at the plain piece of cloth tied around her neck, "They're itchy and they look awful."

"Do you really have to worry about that now?" Chlora sighed, rolling her eyes, "We're on a mission right now, in case you've forgotten." They were currently in Apple Woods, looking for some poor Phanpy that had gotten lost.

"I haven't forgotten," Miranda grouched, "I just hate these things... I know they're guild issue, but you'd think that with all the money they take from our rewards they could afford to give us something a little nicer."

"Well, there's no use whining about it. We can't change it," Chlora reminded her.

"I know, I was just saying," Miranda sighed. The Charmander paused suddenly, looking down at the ground. There, was a bright blue Oran berry. She picked it up, then suddenly an odd expression came over her face as she stared at the little berry.

"Miranda, hurry up!" Chlora called from up ahead.

"Coming!" Miranda shouted, tucking the berry among the team's other items. All throughout the mission, she picked up every berry she could find.

* * *

"Hi Kangaskhan!" Chlora said cheerily as she approached the counter of the shop. It was the next day, and the Chikorita was running the team's errands before they set out on a mission. Miranda had been absent when she woke up that morning, and had even been missing from the morning rollcall, much to the annoyance of Chatot, but Chlora knew she would be able to find her before they left. Chatot would kill either of them if they went alone on a mission.

"Hello, Chlora!" Kangaskhan replied, "How are you doing this morning?"

"Great. I'm here running errands before Miranda and I set off today. We need..." she checked the sack, "A Heal Seed, an apple... Oh! And a couple of Oran berries."

Chlora waited as Kangaskhan retreated into the building to fetch the items from their storage space. The Pokemon returned, and deposited the requested apple and Heal seed. "There you go, dear" she said.

"But what about the Oran berries?" Chlora asked in puzzlement.

"There's no Oran berries back there," Kangaskhan frowned, "Why would you need more anyway? Miranda came by not an hour ago and took every berry in your storage!"

"Every berry?" Chlora blinked uncomprehendingly.

"Yes," Kangaskhan nodded.

"Even the Sitrus?" The single golden berry with the power to raise maximum HP had been hoarded ever since they found it.

"Yes, dear," Kangaskhan said with a slight laugh, "She headed back towards the guild after doing so. She also took all your teams scarves."

An idea began to form in Chlora's mind. "Thanks," she said, "I think I need to go find Miranda now."

* * *

On the bottom floor of the Guild, slightly hidden from view by Croagunk's Swap Shop, Chlora found Miranda. To say that the Charmander had made a mess was to understate. She was completely covered in berry juice, which lay in little puddles around her. A pile of wet scarves and another of berries lay beside her, and she was busy rubbing something into another.

"Miranda!" Chlora said, making her partner jump and whip around.

"Oh hi, Chlora!" Miranda grinned, relaxing when she saw who it was, "Look what I've been doing!"

Every scarf their team owned had been completely coated in berry juice, creating a wide array of colors on each, from the yellow of their one Sitrus (now made of nothing more than pulpy scraps from being rubbed into every scarf), to the dark blue speckles of their Chesto berries.

"Believe me, it was hard," Miranda said, "Particularly the Chesto berries. They were so dry I could hardly get any juice out of them at all."

Chlora remained speechless for a moment. Then finally, she was able to get out, "So _this_ is what you did with every single one of our berries?"

Miranda's expression showed that she had noticed the stiffness of Chlora's tone. "Not entirely!" she said earnestly, "We still have five Orans, three Pechas, a Cheri and a Chesto berry!" She scooped up her remaining pile of berries and showed them to Chlora. "If you don't mind them being covered in berry juice..." she added as a guilty afterthought.

"Miranda, how could you be so hairbrained!?" she said loudly, "That was all our berries! Our entire stock!"

"I know!" Miranda said, "But don't you think the scarves look much better now?"

Chlora drew breath for a furious reply, then seeing the scarves again, let it out slowly, "Yeah... they do, but-"

"And I realized - I can't believe I didn't think about this before - but I can wrap a scarf around my arm instead, so it doesn't chafe as much! Now you won't have to hear me complaining anymore!" She was doing her best to avert Chlora's irritation, and it was working. Chlora felt her frustration turning to amusement as she watched.

An irate squawk suddenly sounded across the room. _"What do you think you are doing?!"_

Chlora tried to maintain a straight face and failed. She burst out laughing. When she was finally able to speak again, she said, "All right. But you get to explain to Chatot why you missed rollcall and half of the Guild is now covered in berry juice."

Miranda blanched.


End file.
